Patrick Ewing's Return To Georgetown Puts Him In Select Company

Lots of college basketball coaches are also alums of their school. Roy Williams (North Carolina), Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Bob Huggins (West Virginia), Matt Painter (Purdue) and Chris Mack (Xavier) are among the most prominent.

Patrick Ewing joins this list as he returns to Georgetown as its new head coach. But he also becomes a member of an even more exclusive group: College stars that played in the NBA and then returned to campus as the coach for their alma mater.

One of them is Ewing's old Big East rival, Chris Mullin of St. John's. Another played with Ewing and Mullin on the original Dream Team -- Clyde Drexler. Here's a closer look:

Patrick Ewing

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Ewing played in three NCAA championship games and captured one title as a player. After a Hall-of-Fame career in the NBA, mostly with the Knicks, Ewing has been an assistant coach with four pro teams since 2003. He replaces John Thompson III, who took Georgetown to the Final Four in his third year (2007) but was fired after consecutive losing seasons.

In 1985 Mullin led St. John's to its first Final Four since 1952. It lost to Ewing and Georgetown in the national semifinals, and has only advanced to the Elite Eight twice in the meantime. Mullin was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011 after compiling a shooting percentage of .509 in 16 NBA seasons. He went 8-24 in his first season coaching the Red Storm. The team improved to 14-19 this season. Although Mullin worked as general manager of the Golden State Warriors for five years, he had no coaching experience when St. John's hired him in 2015.

Like Mullin, Drexler is a Hall-of-Fame player who had no coaching experience when he returned to campus shortly after retiring from the NBA in 1998. Drexler led Portland to the NBA Finals twice, then won a title with the Rockets in 1995. Drexler, who helped the Cougars reach two Final Fours as a player, lasted two seasons as head coach. He had a record of 19-39.

Ollie played in three NCAA tournaments for the Huskies and reached the Sweet Sixteen twice. The 6-2 point guard played 13 NBA seasons for 12 teams. He returned to UConn as an assistant after retiring from the NBA in 2010. After two seasons, he was promoted to head coach when Jim Calhoun retired. In Ollie's second season, the Huskies won the NCAA title, beating Kentucky in the 2014 championship game.

Hoiberg's No. 32 has been retired at Iowa State where he earned the nickname of The Mayor. Hoiberg played 10 NBA seasons with Indiana, Chicago and Minnesota. Hoiberg led the NBA in three-point shooting percentage (.483) in 2004-05 but it turned out to be his final season because of a heart condition. He spent one year on the coaching staff and three in the front office of the Timberwolves until getting tapped to take over at Iowa State in 2010. The Cyclones made the NCAA tournament in four of his five seasons and reached the Sweet Sixteen in 2014. The Chicago Bulls hired Hoiberg to be their coach in 2015.

Drew is best known for nailing the buzzer-beater on the Pacer play that lifted No. 13 seed Valparaiso past Ole Miss in the first round of the 1998 NCAA tournament. But Drew went on to play six NBA seasons. He joined the Valparaiso staff in 2005, and when his dad, Homer, retired in 2011, Bryce replaced him as head coach. Valparaiso went to the NCAA tournament twice in his five years. He left for Vanderbilt in 2016.